Cork 2022: Exhibitions

By Every Means at Our Command: The War of Independence in Cork

Opening: 19 November 2019

Venue: Cork Public Museum

The aim of the exhibition is to give a broad and informative overview of how the war progressed in Cork from January 1919 until the truce on 11^th July 1921. Using original artefacts, images, and documentation, (many of which have never been on display before), the exhibition will illustrate the roles played by the Republican and Crown forces while exploring their strategies, tactics, equipment and experiences. The exhibition will contain uniforms, weapons, and other personal objects to illustrate the realities of living, and fighting, through this war.

Online Exhbition: Seeing Ireland: Art, Culture, and Power in Paris, 1922

Date: Friday, 28 January 2022, 5.00 - 6.00pm

Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub and Online

A virtual Irish Art exhibition created in partnership with the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute and funded by the Commemorations Unit, Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The virtual exhibition recreates and contextualises the ground-breaking exhibition of modern Irish Art staged in Paris in January 1922, and showcases works by many celebrated Irish artists, including Mary Swanzy, Paul Henry, Sean Keating, Jack B Yeats, and Grace Henry. The Seeing Ireland launch will include contributions from speakers including Minister Catherine Martin and H.E. Vincent Guérend, French Ambassador to Ireland, and will also feature a panel discussion with the artists Mick O’Dea, RHA, and Sinead Ni Mhaonaigh, chaired by TCD’s Dr Angela Griffith. The event also features a short virtual tour of the 3D recreation of the original exhibition space developed by NoHo Design 

Exhibition: Studio & State: The Laverys and the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Opening date: Temporary Exhibition 

Venue: Collins Barracks Dublin

Exhibition: 'One of Our Own': Tadhg Barry (1880-1921)

Opening date: November 2021  

Venue: Cork City and County Archives

Curated by historian Dr. Luke Dineen, this Exhibition explores the life and times of trade union activist and City Councillor Tadhg Barry and his place in History. Barry trained the first camogie team in Cork and was a founder member of the Irish Volunteers Cork Corps. He was killed while interned during the Truce period, just before the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921. A number of original letters, documents and artefacts relating to Barry are also on display, including items provided by the Barry family, and items from the Cork Archives and Cork Public Museum collections. The exhibition will run at Cork City and County Archives from Tuesday 16 November 2021 until April 2022. Public access is by appointment, subject to public health guidance. Small groups are also welcome by prior arrangement.

Exhibition: The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives

Opening date:  7 December – 27 March 2022

Venue:  the Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle

The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives Presented by the National Archives in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy, the National Library of Ireland and the Office of Public Works, with records from the collections of the Military Archives, Dublin and University College Dublin Archives. Using the Anglo-Irish Treaty as a centrepiece, the National Archives will present an exhibition that marks its role as the official repository of the records of the State, one hundred years since its formation. The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives opens up significant historical records, official documents and private papers for the first time in the history of the State, including the first public presentation of the Treaty document.Open 10am – 5pm, daily, Admission free. Watch an introductory video to the Exhibition and Read the Exhibition Brochure Here

Exhibition:  In Our Own Image: Photography in Ireland, 1839 to the Present 

Date:  29 November 2021–6 February 2022

Venue: The Printworks, Dublin Castle 

Curated by Gallery of Photography Ireland and the Office of Public Works, Dublin Castle, In Our Own Image presents the first comprehensive historical and critical survey of photography from across the island of Ireland. This landmark centenary exhibition charts how the medium has both reflected and shaped Irish cultural identity, from the work of the earliest photographic pioneers up to the emergence of a recognisably modern state. In Our Own Image reveals the depth of our shared photographic heritage, viewed through important works by key photographers held in leading archives, cultural institutions, museums, and private collections.11am–5.45pm, Monday–Sunday, admission is free. Find more information here https://www.galleryofphotography.ie/in-our-own-image

Exhibition: 'Imprisoning a Nation' - 1921 Rebels held at Spike Island 

Opening date: June 2021

Venue: Spike Island, Cork 

The exhibition, which is funded by Cork County Council’s Commemorations Committee and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and media, tells the story of the 1200 men held on the island for their Republican activities in 1921. The exhibition contains a number of new artefacts donated by the families of the men held on the island.  These include coins shaped into badges and pins, prisoner carved wooden artefacts, and there are several diaries and autograph books kept by the men. 

Exhibition: Independence Museum, Kilmurray

Opening Hours: 2pm – 5pm, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Venue: Independence Museum, Kilmurray

Reopened to the public from May 2021, the Independence muesum displays a selection of fascinating artefacts relating to the War of Independence period, including a revolver, once owned by Tomas MacCurtain, used to assassinate RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy in 1920, and the silver dish ring gifted to Terence and Muriel MacSwiney on the occasion of their wedding. The 'Terence MacSwiney Weekened', at Kilmurray closes on Sunday 24 October with the exhibition:  ‘94 days: The Longest Hunger Strike, Cork and Brixton, 1920’

Interactive Online Exhibition/Project: Building as Witness

Dates: 6 December 2021 - 17 April 2024

Venue: Crawford Art Gallery

Building as Witness is interactive online project focusing on Crawford Art Gallery (previously Cork School of Art) which was witness to fascinating histories of local, national, and international importance surrounding the Irish Civil War period. Commencing 6 December 2021 – the centenary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty – Building as Witness will span the duration of the Irish Civil War and will culminate on 17 April 2024, one hundred years after the Gibson Bequest Committee agreed upon the purchase of Seán Keating’s iconic painting Men of the South for Crawford Art Gallery’s collection. The lens of the project will focus on the overlooked histories of Crawford Art Gallery’s collections and archives, events and individuals, political, commercial, community figures and social groups that are entwined and enmeshed with the building and its surroundings, whilst creative commissions will invite six artists to engage with the building and its hidden histories from one hundred years ago. Each week new histories will be made available through Crawford Art Gallery’s website and social media – building stories, Building as Witness.

Cork 2022: Events

Event: Dividing the Nation – A performance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty Debates

Date: January 2022

Project Organiser: Cork County Council

St Peter’s, Cork collaborated with Wombat Media to capture a 90-minute adaptation of the 'Treaty Debates' by students from the Acting for Stage and Screen Course of Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa. The historic debates are adapted by Cork historian Gerry White, directed by Jon Whitty of Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa and performed by the students, this adaptation covers some of the key moments of the debates in the words of the participants, including many Corks’ TDs. Watch the performance here.

Conference: The Handover of Dublin Castle 

Date: 14-15 January 2022

Venue: Dublin Castle and Online 

On 16 January 1922 the Provisional Government took possession of Dublin Castle. The events of that day were overtaken and perhaps overshadowed by the civil war that soon followed, but this two-day conference, hosted by Trinity College Dublin at Dublin Castle, will retrieve the historical significance of that day.  The conference, which is part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme, will explore the immediate reactions, the expected consequences, and the implications of this dramatic shift in the centre of power.  Speakers will consider the context of the handover, and the response in Ireland, Britain and beyond, to this moment when, as the Irish Times reported, ‘the old regime ceased to exist’. More details and conference proceedings on the Trinity College Dublin website: 

Online seminar: ‘Civil Wars and the making of Europe’s twentieth century’.

Date: 27 January 2022, 4.00pm

Venue: Online as part of the History Research Seminar Series, School of History, University College Cork

Professor Robert Gerwarth, Department of History, University College Dublin presents a paper examining how Civil war, as much as inter-state war, was a defining feature of the period for many European societies, ranging from Ireland in the west to Russia in the east, and from Finland in the north to Spain and Greece in the south. While civil war had been a prominent and recurring element of modern Europe's history, from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first, they acquired a particular density in an era which has come to be associated primarily with the inter-state conflicts of the two world wars. This lecture will propose a number of themes that could form the basis of a new comparative history of civil wars in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. To attend: Links can be sent by e-mail on request; please, contact Dr Jérôme aan de Wiel, School of History, UCC: j.aandewiel@ucc.ie

Webinar: ‘Mapping IRA Companies, July 1921-July 1922’.

Date: 20 January 2022, 3.00-4.30pm

Venue: Online 

This public webinar to mark the launch of the new, interactive IRA Companies Map was hosted by the Atlas of the Irish Revolution research team in partnership with the Military Archives and broadcast on 20 January 2022.This extraordinary research tool maps Ireland’s 2,181 IRA companies and their respective strengths on two critical dates between the end of the War of Independence and the beginning of the Civil War.Dr Donal O Drisceoil led a discussion with cartographers Mike Murphy and Charlie Roche about the research and construction of the story map based on the Nominal Roll files in the Military Service Pensions Collection. The Atlas team was joined by Joining Cécile Gordon, Senior Archivist and Project Manager of the Military Service (1916-1923) Pensions Collection Project to discuss the collaboration with UCC and the primary source material for the map. UCC School of History’s Dr John Borgonovo, also presented a short paper on some of the IRA companies featured on the map. If you missed the live webinar, you can watch the recording here.

Webinar: 'Revolutionary Women of Ireland and Mexico'

Date: 1 February 2022, 2:00pm

Venue: Online 

During key moments in history, women have been protagonists of great changes that have shaped our society, from great revolutionary women, to the women that day to day built peace after a conflict. In this webinar, Mexican historian Carmen Saucedo, and Irish historians Sinead McCoole and Michael Hogan, will talk about the women that have played a key role in the independences of Ireland and Mexico. follow this link to register and find more information about the webinar and about women in Irish history on the Mná100 website

Online Discussion: 'Ireland 1922: Women in Independence, Partiton and Civil War' 

Date: 5 February 2022, 12:00 noon

Venue: Online 

Organised by the Royal Irish Academy in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs, this online event, chaired by Darragh Gannon and featuring historians Fionnuala Walsh, Lindsey Earner-Byrne and Mary McAuliffe, explores the events of 1922 and the creation of the new state, and considers what role gender has to play in this Decade of Centenaries. This event will take place online, is free of charge and does not require registration. More information about the speakers and the event are available at this link: 

Online Discussion: 'Irish Civil War to Irish Free State' 

Date: 16 February 2022, 6:00-7:00pm

Venue: Online 

Irish Civil War to Irish Free State is an online panel discussion organised by Creative Centenaries exploring post Anglo-Irish Treaty Ireland, from the split in the Irish Nationalist movement to guerrilla war and the establishment of the country that would eventually be known as the Irish Republic. Join Liz Gillis, Professor Henry Patterson, Dr Síobhra Aiken and chair Dr Adrian Grant as they examine Ireland's struggle to achieve 'freedom'. More details and link for registration here 

Online Discussion: 'The Irish Civil War: A roundtable discussion' 

Date: 24 February 2022, 5:00-7:00pm

Venue: Online 

Professor Guy Beiner, Boston College; Dr Síobhra Aiken, Queen’s University Belfast; Dr John Borgonovo, University College Cork; and Dr Ailbhe McDaid join, Chair, Professor Linda Connolly to to explore the history and legacy of the Irish Civil War from different vantage points and perspectives. The panel of speakers have researched and published important work on gender, memory, trauma, sexual and gender-based violence, commemoration, the Irish revolution, literature, historiography and social and cultural theory, will provide an interdisciplinary analysis and discussion.

Online Lecture Series: Burning the Country House

Dates: 24 March - 19 May 2022

Venue: Online

A series of lectures hosted by the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish houses and Estates, History Department, Maynooth University. The lecture series is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Historical Strand of the Decade of Centenaries Programme. These talks run in tandem with the exhibition Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in Revolution, 1920-23, curated by Professor Terence Dooley and hosted by the Irish Architectural Archives from 21 March to 29 April 2022, and Maynooth University Library in May 2022. Two lectures will be delivered live: the inaugural lecture by Terence Dooley on 24 March 2022 and the last in the series by Christopher Ridgway on 19 May 2022. The remaining six lectures will be pre-recorded. The live lectures will begin at 19:00. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/burning-the-country-house-online-lecture-series-tickets-241397194507.

Event: National Conference on the Irish Civil War 

Date: 15-18 June 2022

Venue: University College Cork

University College Cork (UCC) will host the Irish Civil War National Conference, to mark the centenary of the opening of hostilities at the Four Courts in Dublin. Working with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, this conference will align with the core principles of the Irish government’s Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations by encouraging, ‘multiple and plural’ perspectives on complex and contested events. The four-day conference will seek to explore political, social, cultural, military, and economic dimensions to the Irish Civil war. It will also locate the Irish experience within the broader context of similar national, imperial and European political realignments following the end of the Great War. Wider historiographical and theoretical perspectives on the phenomenon of civil war, as experienced both before and since 1922-23, will also be invited to place the Irish Civil War within broader chronological and geographical frameworks. The conference will seek, neither a single agreed narrative, nor indeed a sense of ‘closure’. Instead it will attempt to gather the fruits of on-going historical research in what the Expert Advisory Group describes as, ‘meaningful engagements with a difficult and traumatic time’.

Event: The West Cork History Festival 2022

Date: August 2022

Venue: West Cork History Festival

Celebrating its sixth year in 2021, the West Cork History Festival aims to make a contribution to the local cultural programme in West Cork and to wider conversations about important historical subjects. The programme in 2021 was virtual and constructed around the two connected strands of ‘Ireland in 1921’ and ‘Ireland and Empire’. Notable speakers included Fergal Keane, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Professor Roy Foster, Dr Aoife Bhreatnach and a panel discussion on the Black and Tans featuring Professor Marie Coleman, Dr David Leeson, Dr Edward Madigan and Professor John Horne. Most of the Festival programme is free to view on the West Cork History Festival website.

Online Lecture Series: The Partition of Ireland: Causes and Consequences

Date: Recorded in 2021 and available to view online

Venue: Queen's University Belfast

In order to mark the centenary of the partitioning of Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast organised and hosted a major series of online public talks. The series was supported by the UK Government and the Irish Government, and by the British Academy and the Royal Irish Academy. The talks were recorded and produced by the BBC and released on a weekly basis from 26 April – 4 October 2021. The series addresses a diverse range of major themes, including the complex origins and legacies of partition, the Irish border in literature, the experience of minorities, and class-based and gender-based perspectives. Contributors included Dr Robert Lynch, Professor Bill Kissane, Professor Fearghal McGarry, Professor Marianne Elliott, Dr Margaret O’Callaghan, Professor Roy Foster, Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor Richard English, Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor Marie Coleman, Professor Paul Bew, Professor Mary E. Daly and Professor Alvin Jackson. Watch the lectures here https://www.qub.ac.uk/talks-100/

Cork 2022: Projects

Project: Centenary Timeline for the County of Cork

Launch Date: Ongoing

Project Organiser: Cork County Council

This document provides hundreds of key dates with regard to the involvement of County Cork in the War of Independence and Civil War. These include the majority of the key occurrences of 1920 – 1923 including all major events from the County of Cork (including some other locations that involved people from County Cork), as well as key developments on the national level (or elsewhere in the country) during this timeframe. A separate and ongoing project organised by Cork County Council, is the documenting of War of Independence and Civil War Memorials in the County of Cork. 

Project: The ‘Decade of Centenaries’ All Island History Competition for Primary and Post-Primary Schools 2021/2022

Closing Date: 8 April 2022

Project Organiser: the Department of Education and University College Cork School of History.

Digitisation Projects: The Cabinet Minute Books April 1919-April 1922 and the records of the Constitution Committee 1922

Date: Ongoing

The National Archives

Following the general election of 14 December 1918, the first two sessions of Dáil Éireann or the ‘First Dáil’ were held in the Mansion House, Dublin on 21^st-22^nd January 1919. The third session was not held until 1^st April 1919 when Eamon de Valera was elected President of Dáil Éireann (Príomh Aire). The following day, he appointed the cabinet of the new Sinn Féin government: Arthur Griffith, Secretary of Home Affairs and Deputy President; Michael Collins, Secretary of Finance; Cathal Brugha, Secretary of Defence; William T Cosgrave, Secretary of Local Government; Count George Nobel Plunkett, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Countess Constance de Markievicz, Secretary of Labour; and Eoin MacNéill, Secretary of Industries. Robert Barton became head of the Department of Agriculture and Laurence Ginnell, head of the Department of Propaganda.  The Cabinet Minute Books April 1919-April 1922 contain records of cabinet meetings from 26^th April 1919 to 29^th April 1922.

The Constitution Committee was appointed by the Provisional Government in January 1922 to draft the first Constitution of the Irish Free State.  It was chaired initially by Michael Collins. The records held in the National Archives comprise minutes, drafts, research and administrative material produced by the workings of the Committee over a period of six weeks.

Digitisation Project: Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury

Date: Ongoing

The Beyond 2022 Project is working to create a virtual reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland, which was destroyed in the opening engagement of the Civil War on June 30th, 1922. Five Core Archival Partners and over 40 other Participating Institutions in Ireland, Britain and the USA, are working to recover what was lost in that terrible fire one hundred years ago. On the centenary of the Four Courts blaze on 30 June 2022, will see the launch the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland online. Many millions of words from destroyed documents will be linked and reassembled from copies, transcripts and other records scattered among the collections of the archival partners. This rich array of replacement items will be displayed within an immersive 3-D reconstruction of the destroyed building. Find more information on the deidcated website.

Recent Publications

• Michael B. Barry and John O'Byrne, The Irish Civil War in Colour, (Gill Books, Sept 2022)
• Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, Marie Coleman and Paul Bew (eds), Northern Ireland 1922-2022, Centeanry Historical Perspectives, (Ulster Historical Foundation, March 2022)
• Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry (ed), Ireland 1922: Independence, Partition, Civil War, (RIA, Jan 2022)
• John Gibney and Kate O'Malley, The Handover: Dublin Castle and the British withdrawal from Ireland, 1922, (RIA, 2022)
• Donal O Drisceoil, Utter Disloyalist: Tadhg Barry and the Irish Revolution (Mercier Press, Cork, 2021)
• Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh and Liam Weeks, Birth of a State: The Anglo-Irish Treaty, (Irish Academic Press, 2021)
• Aodh Quinlivan,  Forgotton Lord Mayor Donal Óg Ó'Callaghan 1920-1924, (Cork City Council, Cork, 2020)
• Diarmaid Ferriter, Between Two Hells, The irish Civil War, (Profile Books 2021)
• Harry F. Martin & Cormac K.H. O’Malley, Ernie O’Malley: A Life, (Irish Academic Press, 2021)
• Charles Townshend, The Partition: Ireland Divided, 1885-1925, (Penguin Books, 2021)
• John Burke, Roscommon: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23 (Four Courts Press, 2021)
• Brian Feeney, Mary Ann Lyons and Daithi O Corrain, Antrim: The Irish Revolution series, 1912-23 (Four Courts Press, 2021)
• W. H. Kautt, Arming the Irish Revolution: Gunrunning and Arms Smuggling, 1911-1922, (Kansas University Press, 2021)
• Marnie Hay, Scouting for rebels, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Revolution, 1909–23, (Manchester University Press, 2021)
• Linda Connolly, Women and the Irish Revolution: Feminism, Activism, Violence, (Irish Academic Press, 2020)
• Mary Kotsonouris, Retreat from Revolution: The Dáil Courts, 1920–24, (Irish Academic Press, 2020)
• Patrick O'Sullivan Greene , Crowdfunding the Revolution: The First Dáil Loan and the Battle for Irish Independence (Eastwood Books, 2020)
• Colum Kenny, The Enigma of Arthur Griffith: ‘Father of Us All’, (Merrion Press, 2020)
• Eunan O'Halpin and Daithi O Corrain, The Dead of the Irish Revolution (Yale University Press, 2020) 
• Sean Enright, The Irish Civil War: Law, Execution and Atrocity, (Merrion Press, 2020)

Coming Soon

• Síobhra Aiken, Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War, (irish Academic Press, February 2022) 
• Conor Mulvagh and Emer Purcell, The Lives of Eoin MacNeill:The pen and the sword, (Cork University Press, 2022)
• Patrick Mannion and Fearghal McGarry, The Irish Revolution: A Global History (NYU Press, May 2022) 
• Terence Doley, Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in a Time of War and Revolution, (Yale University Press, April 2022) 
• Eve Morrison, Kilmichael: The Life and Afterlife of an Ambush, (Irish Academic Press, April 2022)
• Pauric Travers, Donegal, The Irish Revolution, 1912-23, (Four Courts Press, June 2022)
• Daithí Ó Corráin & Gerard Hanley, Cathal Brugha, “An Indomitable Spirit”, (Four Courts Press, July 2022)
• Eoin Kinsella, The Irish Defence Forces, 1922-2022, Servant of the Nation, (Four Courts Press, July 2022)
• Joost Augusteijn, Mayo: The Irish Revolution, 1912–23, (Four Courts Press, August 2022)
• John Cunningham & Terry Dunne, editors, Spirit of Revolution: Ireland from below, 1917-1923, (Four Courts Press, August 2022)
• Daithí Ó Corráin, The Irish Volunteers, 1913–19: A history, (Four Courts Press, November 2022)
• Daniel Purcell, Fermanagh: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23, (Four Courts Press, May 2023)